Hardware acceleration refers to implementing the functionality of a portion of program code in hardware or circuitry. The hardware accelerated program code is functionally equivalent to the original program code. Instead of executing a compiled version of the program code such as an executable binary using a processor, the program code is implemented as circuitry configured to provide the same functionality as the executable binary. The hardware accelerated version of the program code usually provides improved performance compared to executing the program code using some sort of processor. In some cases, the program code is compiled into a circuit design that is implemented within a programmable IC.